Petolino, Joseph, Ph.D.
Plant Cell Biology
DowElanco
Modern agricultural biotechnology was born during the 1980's
when the first successful delivery, integration, and expression
of foreign genes in plants was demonstrated. Since that time,
there has been exceptionally rapid progress relative to extending
gene transfer capabilities to economically important crop
plants. Although still early in the application and commercialization
of this technology, transgenic crops with resistance to certain
insect pests and tolerance to various herbicides as well as
modified agronomic characteristics have already appeared.
Ultimately, transgenic plants will result in new products
and processes in the seed, agrochemical, food processing,
specialty chemical, and pharmaceutical arenas. My laboratory
is involved with the development of methods for DNA delivery
and plant regeneration from cultured cells, the use of selectable
marker genes for transgenic production, and the identification
and testing of genetic regulatory elements for controlling
gene expression in transgenic plants. The focus is on transgenic
production in commercially-relevant crop species such as corn
and rice.
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Department of Biology